Friends

Greetings good citizen, a wise man once said 'There is no such thing as strangers, they are just friends that we haven't met yet! Considering the world stage and the GWOT [Global war on terror in case you forgot what the acronym represents] it is apparent that not all friendships 'bear fruit'.

Our unidentified sage was probably the same guy who opined 'In order to have a friend you must first BE a friend'

While we all point (and laugh) at Preznint Pussygrabber as being our most 'friendless' [as well as clueless] nominal leader, the lesson learned here is people raised in a void [even one of their own making] are ignorant of the 'dynamics of friendship.'

The tragedy here is he remains clueless that he is friendless because he has probably never known friendship or what it means to be there for somebody.

Again, we time travel back to the campaign, not one pundit [even Karl Rove's twisted stand in, Steve Bannon] put forth the false idea that 'The Donald' [what he called himself before he dubbed himself 'Pussygrabber in Chief'] was the kind of guy you'd enjoy sitting down and having a beer with.

Ironic that both The Donald and W. share the 'empty suit' affliction. Is that the quality our overlords have decided best fit for the man appointed, er, elected to the office of Leader of the Free World? Both D & W also share their gratitude towards the Electoral College for their victories as neither won the 'popular vote'.

So much for Democracy, eh?

One would almost think the elections were 'fixed'...

Not that there is anything anybody could do about it [legally.]

[Herein we see the danger of being clueless when it comes to the 'dynamics of friendship'. Neither of these clueless morons knew what a friend was so they didn't question their 'appointments' or their marching orders [which they were advised was one of 'the conditions' of their ongoing 'friendship'.]

Of course, once the die was cast the ruse was probably dropped. Both were likely told where the bear shit, they'd do as they were told if they wanted to live.

But the obvious cluelessness regarding the dynamics of friendship is a trait shared by all presidents elected since LBJ.

They were all 'stupid enough' to want the Presidency [at least initially] and once 'anointed' it was too late to back out.

Should you work up the courage to defy them you'd be given a state funeral, courtesy of a 'grateful nation'. Naturally, after leaving office you 'enjoy' Secret Service protection for the rest of your 'natural' days. How this differs from 'house arrest' isn't easy to quantify. Sure you can go wherever you like but 'security' has to clear your 'requests'.

Um, since there will always be the 'danger' of somebody you made an enemy out of in office will come calling, all visitors must first be 'vetted' as well.

These 'friendless' types probably don't have 'friends' come calling [not that there aren't sycophants that nurture/exploit their old political contacts for everything they are worth! (again the clueless who brag they are 'friends of the president' despite them no longer being in office.) is another reason why the pool of candidates for the highest office in the land is dominated by the elderly, whose list of 'friends' has shortened considerably.

Yeah, F. Scoot Fitzgerald spoke true when he wrote, "The rich aren't like you or me." Friendship is meaningless to them and they shamelessly exploit one another without a second thought.

When you're counting your blessing this December 31st, count those who have stood by you as your most precious blessings because one true friendship is more valuable than all of this world's riches, [and ten times the fools that covet them!]

In this respect I am a wealthy man because I count many of you as 'true friends'. I expect none of you to 'die' for me although some of you would risk life and limb for me, as I would for all of you!

To have a friend, one must be a friend. If you didn't turn to me in your hour of need I understand, I'm not your only friend and solace is in the eyes of the beholder. That does not dim the bond of friendship, in fact it makes it stronger for the first part of being a friend is UNDERSTANDING (and supporting) your friend's decisions.

While many of us have drifted apart over the years, our 'friendship' remains as strong as the last time we met.

I hold you all precious in my heart and that is more than any one man can want.

Thanks for being my friend,

Gegner

Winter

Greetings good citizen, as a Bostonian people would pick up on my 'accent' and wistfully tell me they always wanted to visit Boston. Probably not just me who has the initial reaction of 'What's wrong with you? Why would you want visit there?' Ever hear the joke about wearing a parka and shorts? Well, that's true!

You see, if you don't live where some of the worlds most extreme weather happens you get to harbor fantasies about how 'quaint & historic' Boston is instead of the reality, when it's not colder than a witches tit, it's steamier than the Devils scrotum! Spring and Fall last exactly one day with Spring showing sometime in February while there's still snow on the ground and Fall sometime in November or early December, Mother Nature ignores the flippin' calendar. Nice weather is so rare around here we don't care, we take 'em when she gives 'em to us.

Wanna go for a dip in the Atlantic? Not if your on the north side of Cape Cod you don't! [Not without a wet suit...]

The flannel sheets stay on the bed from Columbus Day until school lets out in June, then we break out the air conditioners, shorts and tank tops. A little bizarre to be wearing shorts and a tank top while the snowbank at the end of the street is still melting. [As I type this the plow just went by (again)]

It is so cold out some places have cancelled New Years! [Sometimes referred to as First Night, where half the time they're crying the ice sculptures are melting but the forecast is for rapid onset [less than 5 min exposure] frostbite this December 31st! Did I mention the weather sucks?

What nobody tells you is the expression, "If you don't like the weather in New England, wait a minute"...well the 'unspoken part' is 'it will get WORSE!'

Again it's not the temperature so much as the windchill, the thing that makes Nor'easters such a treat! [Se Habla Winter Hurricane?]

Don't get me wrong, visiting and living here are two different animals. Seeing the sights and soaking up some culture (Boston does have a unique 'flavor' that you won't find anywhere else.) I'm guessing the weather gets to you...maybe 'hardy' doesn't quite sum up your typical Bostonian.

Probably something in the Bostonian's make up, remember the original Revolution STARTED HERE.

You can find Englishmen all over the planet...and when you run into Brits that have made Boston their home, they unfailingly refer to England as 'home'. So there probably isn't much to recommend Boston as a place to live, even 'transplants' fondly embrace wherever they came from over this formidable environment.

Kinda tough growing up in worst house of what used to be the nicest block on the planet but you make the best of it. Ironically it's proximity to England is what's kept Boston 'relevant'.

We may have started it but look at where they decided to put the Capitol, [even New Yorkers suffer from being a little too close to the ice chest we all refer to as the 'icy North Atlantic'.

Not for nuthin, when biblical Jesus walked the Earth this part of the planet was still buried under a mile thick sheet of ice!

Weather aside, New England has its 'charm'.

Probably unfair to write about the weather during one of the coldest winters in recent history, New Englander's are no strangers to outerwear, for nine months out of the year you keep your jacket handy, just in case. Recently we've been wearing more of it, the weathermen like to admonish us to 'dress in layers' which makes put everything you own on sound less ridiculous!

So if I sound kind of ornery sometimes try to appreciate where I'm coming from. I was born here and I haven't managed to escape (yet), how unfortunate the only way I'm gonna get out is a lottery hit, if I don't I just can't afford to move.

[In case any of you were wondering, Gegner is still po'.]

Rather than go screaming off the reservation I'm gonna post this one 'as is' to give you the [likely false] impression I'm not a wild eyed maniac ready to lynch the first mildly prosperous individual I run into.

It's not their fault [although they're not doing anything about it] It is unlikely I'll ever accidentally bump into a 'runner'. They avoid the mundane like the plague!

As we wind down 2017, try and keep your eye on the ball.

Thanks once again for stopping by and opening your mind,

Gegner

Opportunist

Greetings good citizen, inaction on the front that is driving us to self extinction is our biological imperative, our inborn desire to breed and the 'meaning' that imperative gives our lives.

If not to breed, what? Do we exist to eat, poop and call the stork? [Practice making babies...]

The birth/death cycle drives our existence [as well as our religious beliefs!]

Worse, like hatred, much of what we believe is 'learned' because nobody knows/has a good answer to the 'why are we here?' question.

Serious irony in the fact that most of us are here against our will [but again this is just one more 'choice' your ancestors were deprived of.]

'Ideally' we are born of love but that ingredient isn't vital to the process. More often than not it's the 'unintended consequence' of scratching that itch we'd all be better off ignoring.

It's not the 'calling the stork' part that causes the problems, it's mankind's 'opportunist' nature and the hopes of putting the squeeze on [if not the couple themselves then their parents, rewarding themselves with a few bucks while making everyone else involved suffer.

Yeah good citizen, 'FU pay me!' has even crawled into this unfortunate niche.

Some of you may have noticed how 'the root of all evil' is a recurring theme in these essays and that is not my intent at all! [If possible I would abolish 'money' altogether BUT don't forget that irrational 'opportunistic nature' that is humanity's curse.

Without a 'regulator' people would 'help themselves' and we'd find ourselves in a horrible predicament of implacable shortages because people will take anything that isn't bolted SECURELY to the ground if it even LOOKS 'valuable'.

Take your garden variety rock, paint it gold, drop it on the ground and watch how long it sits there. EVEN if you live in the Woods the rock will be gone in hours.

If it isn't gone you can bet some of the paint has been removed on part of the rock, exposing the ruse and explaining it's continued presence.

We're not all COMPLETELY STUPID [how unfortunate for most of us that 'presence of mind' is just as rare as 'common sense'?]

You SHOULD question EVERYTHING but for reasons unexplained, we don't teach the young to look beyond 'face value' [or they forget, which amounts to the same difference.]

Much of the 'nastiness' in this life is driven by our species 'opportunistic' nature. That said our next evolutionary imperative will be overcoming this critical failure. [If we don't, we're doomed.]

How do we overcome this treacherous streak?

Responsibility.

If you are responsible for making something happen then you have to take that responsibility seriously [or face the consequences.] The only people who get to enjoy an 'I don't care' attitude are those with zero responsibility.

How unfortunate for the bulk of us we have one 'responsibility' that refuses to go away. We MUST feed and if we don't satisfy that responsibility we'll die.

How can you live in a society that expressly tells you feeding yourself is YOUR problem?

Joblessness [and those who cause it] are committing crimes against humanity. (I'm looking at you Elephant Boy!)

We are so busy fighting poverty that we don't have time to address the principle cause!

Yet another 'crime against humanity' (but we sit still for it!)

The feckless need to be cast into the cesspit they have dug for us!

[If not them it is us who will end up there...]

If we are to break the cycle of poverty we must take away the opportunist's primary tool.

There is a lot to be 'harvested' from breaking people and the feckless do it every day, all day!

The first thing 'a society of equals' would do is put a stop to this. [Then the feckless would ask why they were being punished they will be 'overlooking' how they rejected their membership in society when they chose to rule over us instead of putting a stop to the predation!

There's a reason why nothing gets fixed and 99% of that reason is because YOU continue to pretend everything is 'normal' when it's the furthest thing from it!

[STOP]

Again I have placed myself in the position of having to apologize and restate how it isn't my purpose to tell you WHAT TO THINK [The morons who do it for a paycheck give you enough of that] it is my purpose to give you SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!

I smell ozone. Let's drop this before you burn out what few brain cells you have left.

Thanks,

Gegner

Repression

Greetings good citizen, where, precisely, do you suppose the line is between freedom and repression? When YOU control the media, you get to tell people what's acceptable because your lies go unchallenged. [For debate is whether or not the 'inconvenient truth', when ignored, amounts to an 'untruth'?]

Now the 'Golden rule' [not of 'gold rules' but of do unto others] is our ONLY rudder [although the morons among us will point to that book made of moral cheesecloth more commonly known as the Bible as their 'rudder' despite it contradicting itself on just about every topic!]

IF the Torah, Koran or Bible were worth spit they'd all agree unanimously that LOVE ONE ANOTHER is the primary rule [full stop, no exceptions/conditions!]

But none of these 'books of peace' actually promotes peace or more importantly EQUALITY [anyone beginning to see a teeny-tiny problem here?] we live in a cesspool of greed where might makes right! LOVE isn't even an afterthought, for most anyway [but freaks abound if you're picking up what I'm laying down...]

AM I off topic? Nope, not digressing this time. Where's the LOVE good citizen?

Truth be told people are hard to love [especially when they don't live up to the expectations you've been spoon-fed!]

Are you repressed or is it just your conditioning?

Yes good citizen, perhaps your repression is due to the particular 'hot-house' you were raised in. The media is a relative newcomer in the repression game...

But it does 'dominate' the principal organ used to repress, the ears!

Let me return to my original 'litmus test', the 'patrolman'.

In the beginning patrolmen literally watched the edges of the city for 'intruders' so they wore full combat armor and carried heavy firepower to ward off the interlopers until help arrived.

Then we advanced civilly and the need for heavily armed guards [outside the palace] diminished. Patrolmen faced their lightly armed peers with just their uniforms and their sidearms.

Tick-tock, good citizen. Anybody notice what has happened since Morning in America? Now your average 'patrolman' wears body armor and has enough firepower to fight off a platoon by themselves! [and that threat don't exist! Biker movies are just that MOVIES/PROPAGANDA!]

[Not to commit the 'sin of omission' I refer to earlier, criminals have always armed themselves with military grade weaponry, when criminals wielded automatic weapons, so did the 'special' patrolman. [Actually using a 'bullet-hose' requires training, practice and DEEP POCKETS!]

The criminals knowledgeable in the use of automatic weapons were trained by the military [another administrative failure!]

Anyway, after the riots caused by the Vietnam, er, 'conflict' our political nincompoops decided rank and file patrolmen needed greater protection and they used the municipal insurance carrier as an enforcement tool!

It has long been 'assumed' that fully automatic weapons would 'slip through the cracks' so the average patrolman (commonly a military veteran already trained in the used of automatic weapons was issued a 'familiar friend' to accompany them on patrol.

While SOME M class weapons did sneak over the wire they are not nearly the issue they once were. [Back when the criminals had 45 cal 'Tommy-guns' and the cops had Colt 38's, needless to say the criminals 'advantage' didn't last long.]

Now police departments across the nation have been gifted with armored transports...and nobody can explain WHY? [Surplus my backside!]

Naturally the cognizant among us have noticed these developments and pondered what's coming, some have even planned how to remove this threat from the local environment [by it does little when the neighboring department is ordered to 'lend support' when putting down an uprising and maintaining 'order'.

And THAT, good citizen is where the 'problem' rests.

How far do you go towards 'maintaining order' when the public is starving to death? Body armor and Armored vehicles are going to allow a couple of shooters to do a lot of damage to a bunch of innocent people [before the vehicles are burnt with them inside.]

REMEMBER: The 'palace guard' that YOU pay for exists to protect THEM! THEIR JOB is to keep the feckless 'safe' by any means necessary! The taking steaming dumps on you part is nothing more than 'savage amusement/re-enforcing/reminding YOU WHO is 'in charge'.

Like Uber drivers, the forget they have to LIVE HERE AMONG US...and that has terrible consequences...[thus the armored escape vehicles! Ever wonder why the chief keeps the keys in HIS pocket?] Who feels 'stupid' now?

But hey, nobody likes having the 'holes' in their defenses pointed out.

So, are we 'repressed'?

Undoubtedly. There can be no 'love' in this cesspool of hatred THEY have created for us!

Just something to ponder as you wonder why YOU'RE so dissatisfied with EVERYTHING!

Wake up and smell the gas, you're drowning in it good citizen [and ain't nobody gonna save you but YOU!]

I hold the light by the door, all you have to do is 'swim for it'!

Thanks once again for listening to something you hadn't considered previously.

Gegner

Apathy

Greetings good citizen, the prevalent truism today is 'pick your battles' which sort of falls behind its predecessor, you can't fight city hall [which started this 'unresponsive politician' BS because WE ARE 'City Hall'.]

Yes, the criminals have taken (as in 'captured') the political high ground and the rest of us just sit here agog, unable to get a meaningful consensus while our politicians 'decide' for us. [Even then these dimwits don't do it of their own accord, their 'campaign contributors' dictate to them.]

So it is that we have resigned ourselves to [Follow the money. What isn't squandered on the military is sucked up by HEALTHCARE, it's the f'n LOBBYISTS for the healthcare industry, not Doctors themselves but people who OWN hospitals and VEND to the industry that are mandating insurance plan participation!] Peculiar how HIGHWAY ROBBERY is their 'defense' against SOCIALISM!

Rand Paul is too much of an 'empty suit' to have come up with the slavery argument against socialized medicine on his own!

Elephants in the room people, if you don't start PAYING ATTENTION you're gonna get TRAMPLED!

Rhetorical question: What do you think of 'government by the money?' (Their priorities are DEFINITELY not in alignment with yours.)

Same thing with the 'free traders' that have already decimated markets worldwide. They weren't interested in lower prices for you, they wanted to seize more market share so YOU'D have fewer choices! 'Temporary' lower prices were merely a means to an end.

ASP fixes this by eliminating 'ownership' [and the meaningless 'stock market'.] Industry will be managed as they should be, for the benefit of ALL mankind.

It is 'speciest' of me to even hint that Earth is (solely) for humans. We may be the ones making the decisions but we must be mindful of our fellow travelers that make our ecology what it is.

So while we stand here [basically furious] that our planet (and our children) are being neglected by our bought and paid for politicians, how do you suppose we fix this problem that threatens to WILL end us?

We have allowed the feckless to saddle us with a commerce system that prevents action that isn't 'profitable' [for them, really sucks that only a few profit (enormously) from WAR!]

Understand, this only works because there aren't any 'competing' pools of money out there to drive the bidding for available votes beyond the purchasing power of the feckless!

The public is 'apathetic' because they know they'd be 'chasing their tail' is they decided to engage in the game of 'buying votes'.

The 'fundraising' is already constant and ubiquitous, you spam box is filled with electronic requests for perpetual donations [that the average individual can't afford.]

Something's gotta give and this is the time of year to be planning precisely WHAT.

Farmers can't farm because the price of food is heavily subsidized, if you're not on the government payroll, you can't AFFORD to farm!

Where is our feckless media on this? Nothing we can DO about it so why go there, eh?

Well, there IS something we can do about it and it all starts with the elimination of CASH, the shuttering of the stock markets and the zeroing of global bank accounts. [Banking becomes an internal function of the division that employs you while 'stores' become universal.]

To eliminate [a majority] of corruption the first step is to eliminate the means of corruption, how fortunate for us that 'means' is totally fictional!

NOW, consider where we'll end up if we DON'T put a stop to the madness?

These people just blew a trillion dollar hole in the budget, we will find our economic lifeline cut [even the subsidies that put food on YOUR table will cease, causing bankruptcy and widespread FAMINE. while the feckless few will continue to buy whatever they want because they have ALL THE MONEY!

ONLY the 'TRULY MORONIC will fail to see the danger of allowing the feckless to vote themselves bread and circuses while the rest of civilization crumbles!

Trump's 'base' is only 1 % deep and don't forget it!

Thanks for letting me (and some logic) inside your head!

Gegner

SETI

Greetings good citizen, how many of you think its ironic that NASA's S.E.T.I. project has found no evidence of extra terrestrial Intelligence when it's sister agency S.T.I. has the exact same findings?

While S.E.T.I. is a thing, S.T.I. remains an 'assumption' (without any supporting evidence.)

Were we too launch a physical Search for Terrestrial Intelligence where do you suppose our seekers would start? Would they examine our history for 'evidence' or would they look at our contemporaries for signs of 'mental acuity'?

It has taken hundreds of thousands of years to get where we currently are and the word 'developed' is still more of a euphemism than a statement of fact...{figure of speech for those of you without the, er, mental horsepower to grasp what a euphemism is.}

We can talk [but only enough to make our intentions understood (sometimes), writers aren't the only ones that bemoan the 'imprecision of speech'.]

In fact we talk 'past' one another so often that the entire planet is in a perpetual state of war over 'misunderstandings' [and even that is 90% 'misstatement'] Each party knows full well what the other side wants while both sides also understand that NEITHER is entitled to what it wants so in the end, 'might makes right!'

Is THIS 'intelligence?' [Guess it depends on WHO is doing the measuring?]

Left unanswered is the question of what SETI will do if they succeed in discovering evidence of ETI? [Probably make a load in their pants and urge the morons running this dump to 'go dark' so we aren't discovered!]

Let's face it, humans aren't exactly the 'sharing' type. Based on that fact I suspect our 'philosophy' of "What's ours is ours and [if we like it] what's yours is ours too!" isn't going to go over well with our 'new acquaintances.'

So tell me, are we searching the heavens in hopes of finding people stupider than us so we can exploit them or are we really just acting suicidal by putting our faith in the IDEA that humanity really is 'god's chosen'?

[It is this fact alone that casts serious doubts on claims that 'intelligence' exists in our species...]

The accusation 'superstitious peasant' rings in our ears.

I complain a lot about the nonsensical arrangement we are saddled with and even louder about the fact none of you are willing to even lift a finger in opposition.

[Hello? Anybody home?]

Didn't think so (and no, you can't use that as 'evidence!')

Which is okay because half of you wouldn't get the circular inference there even if I spelled it out for you.

Can't teach anybody that believes they already know.

Hubris is the principal ingredient in every disaster/tragedy! Thinking you understand is probably the most dangerous assumption anybody can make! Often the only wildcard is how many 'orders of magnitude' have you miscalculated by!

Oops! NEVER covers it but, (if you're lucky,) it's all most of us have time for before the hammer drops.

So I leave you, at the commencement of the 'week of reflection' before the New Year to ponder how much different things would be if we were to succeed in finding Terrestrial Intelligence!

Beam me up Mr. Scott, there's NO intelligent life on this planet [how sad that statement INCLUDES Capt Kirk?]

Enjoy the simple things that bring you joy [each other for starters] and 'build' from there!

Not just during this holiday season but all year round!

Peace! [Equality & Justice]

Gegner

Dare

Greetings good citizen, Some may find it 'inappropriate' to challenge long cherished beliefs during the holiday season but let me remind you it's also the end of the old year...a time where will all 'take stock' and make plans (such as they are) for our future.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? Your 'expectations' have been spoon-fed to you, despite the most 'ambitious' of these turning to smoke before your young eyes right around puberty, when the coach didn't make you a starter.

Remember how you went from a MLB, NFL, NBA superstar to rock stardom [although none of you could sing, or play for that matter.] You were going with your 'back up plan' of becoming a rock star (despite having zero talent.) Then reality crashed the party and you started looking for anyone that could give you a 'leg up'. The 'lucky' kids had dad's with businesses they could just walk into, others had dad's that worked for the city or town and the ol' revolving door made room for another 'legacy'.

Weren't you surprised to learn, after being told your whole life you could be whatever you wanted to be, just how narrow the 'window of opportunity' really was?

Those 'born to it' are 'prepped' by their parents to regurgitate the timeworn accusation of 'If you didn't become what you wanted to be it's your own fault!

This is somebody who should be giving advice,right? All they aspired to be was a worthless slug and Yahtzee, they got that right out of the box with zero effort.

Being something and inheriting are two entirely separate paths.

But I digress, you know this isn't about the feckless few and accidents of birth.

One of the 'turning points' of becoming an adult is the realization that you've been lied to from the beginning.

Not that everybody has this epiphany, some enter adulthood still filled with childlike beliefs that turn them into Republicans!

In fact the 'consequences' of being lied to all your young life turns you into a clueless adult! You've been told so many lies you don't know what to believe! Worse, the people that lied to you did so out of LOVE!

Besides being clueless themselves they couldn't bring themselves to be honest with you because the truth is heartbreaking.

Ready for the dare?

Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?

[Damn it, lost 'em back when I started sidetracking about how the progeny of the rich are taught to protect their back by blaming YOU for failures THEY are responsible for!]

That's DARE number 1, YOUR misery/failure is due to THEIR 'so a few can be rich' ideology. It's not because you didn't try hard enough, the windows you were pointed to when you were young we so infinitesimally small that you had a better chance of personally witnessing a 'miracle' than you did of squeezing into that tiny niche!

So why didn't you get your 'normal' life? [That's the one bugging most of you, isn't it?]

Let's start with the 'coaching' you got as a youngster. Nice guys finish last so the 'well intentioned' adults in your life taught you to be a selfish dick.

When you had reason to listen to your 'better self' they would look at you in disbelief and call you a doormat. You won, F 'em!

Next thing you know you're in divorce court defending your existence!

Nice guys never win but they can sleep at night...and perhaps that's a place we have to come to on our own. [Goes for you too Ladies!]

The thing to remember is bad choices ALWAYS result in BAD OUTCOMES!

The question you need to ask yourself is did you fall short of even your most modest expectations?

Now, was this due to your being 'too nice' of too cowardly?

My resume, if held to my chin, would hit the floor BECAUSE I DON'T PUT UP WITH IT!

That's the price you have to be prepared to pay in this world. They can't MAKE you do anything...but it is YOU that has to live with the consequences of your actions! [Karma baby, what goes around comes around!]

You make your choices then you live with 'em.

The damning truth is you've never been given a choice [besides 'take it or leave it'...and if you leave it you've chosen to perish in the wasteland created for 'non-conformists'.]

In fact most of us ended up THERE before we were born!

First part of the dare is recognizing you have been 'molded' into what you are today, the second more difficult part is diggin up the courage to change it.

Don't see the need?

You have already made peace with the idea there is no 'afterlife', you haven't forfeited anything much by not being your 'best self'.

Year end is but a week away and this is but the 'prelude' to a more in depth analysis of our collective failures.

Make merry good citizen, the next holiday season promises to be considerably bleaker with many of us being genuinely grateful for having survived. [Despite the upside being more difficult to winnow with each passing day.]

To the plus side, you'll only put up with it for so long, then you'll go 'blaze of glory' on their medieval asses!

Enjoy the long holiday weekend!

Gegner

reamde

Greetings good citizen, one year into the Trump administration and the media still won't admit Trump supporters got 'suckered'. I'll cut to the chase and remind all of you 'liberal haters' precisely how you got taken in the meat-puppet's own words!

And what about those promises that rich people wouldn’t get a tax cut, that the tax system would get simpler, that you’d be able to file on a postcard, and all that?

Understand, the ONLY people getting a tax cut are business owners...do you know how many 'businesses' there are in the USA? There are only seven million people that file as 'sole proprietors' annually, most 'kitchen table businesses' don't bother to file under the 'don't ask, don't tell' rubric {if you don't report the income you don't have to pay taxes on it!}

Which leaves the relative handful [less than a hundred thousand] of larger businesses WE ALL buy from...a goodly percentage of which aren't based in the US and pay accounting firms to do their taxes on a commission basis [the more they save them the more they are paid!] So the question of whether or not the deductions are 'legitimate' becomes moot.

UNDERSTAND THIS: What the Gov't loses in revenue will be 'made up' in reduced/diluted social benefits and loss of protections that wouldn't exist if not for the funny money generator, the Gov't!

Trillions for war and nothing for public education, (an education that isn't worth spit anyway.) It could more appropriately be called 'comply or die training'.

Question nothing and trust no one! [If the rebels don't trust each other there can't be a revolt!]

That's why our ONLY PLAY is 'no comply'. They can't make us do it. They can TRY to withhold food but we will 'appropriate' what we need.

A siege is a siege. [Prepare, they HAVE!]

Ironic providing strategic advice to people that don't realize the 'real war' started a dozen years ago...

Well NOW is the time to prep because we have finally been put on notice that the enemy is 'ready to rumble'.

How many of you are scratching your head wondering 'what enemy?' when you know damn well WHO!

One more time, slow and in English, If you are poor the enemy is the RICH! [not the clowns with the big paycheck, they are pawns (but still deserve to be punished for their crimes)]

The 'invisible' rich, the ones that were born into their lives of leisure and wouldn't know work if it bit them on the ass!

The very same people that turn a blind eye to the misery and desolation their fecklessness creates and craft tax plans designed not to give themselves MORE MONEY but to 'de-fund' the government they think is making life 'too easy' on the rest of us! [I will once again belabor the obvious and point to the feckless-es solution to the over population problem, genocide!]

This is the 'killer rift'.

'We'* let them get this far and now they are 'going for broke'.

Are you just going to sit there while the cities burn?

Their play is that we'll kill each other off in the wasteland the leave behind, the 'invisible rich' will go to the safe havens they created for their money, which is no longer here [again, a fact obvious to anyone that is paying attention.]

If money is a 'tool' then rich is a club, a club that despises YOU!

Again, forgive me for belaboring the obvious...

Thanks for stopping by and opening your mind!

Happy Holidays everybody!

Gegner

* Our bought and paid for politicians, who aren't that smart brought this upon us...but they also rubber stamped legislation that dumbed down scholastic standards and caused us to raise an entire generation of apathetic morons incapable of seeing (understanding) anything beyond their own navels!

We were so happy to be done with school we didn't notice the schools our children attended were worlds apart from the ones we went to and now we're paying the price for our 'inattentiveness'.

Winner!

Greetings good citizen, Today's headline declares the 'global race to the bottom' is over!

China signaled its economic priorities on Wednesday at the end of a meeting of top Communist Party economic leaders with a statement indicating that President Xi is fully in charge. Labeled “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy With Chinese Characteristics,” the statement called for trimming industrial overcapacity, controlling the supply of money and other moves that have been staples of China’s other recent declarations.

[Bold/emphasis mine.]

A single sentence out of an entire article is hardly 'proof' but anyone PAYING ATTENTION saw all the proof they needed a decade ago when world's manufacturing juggernaut hit the end of its leash at full gallop, knocking it clean off it's feet.

Now that the global economy has, er, 'stabilized' [if you want to call it that, today's other news that the new trillion dollar hole in the US budget has sustained means the countdown to revolution has begun. Tens of millions will be pushed 'over the edge' by the price hikes that will accompany the tax cuts.]

We've ridden this roller coaster before, the rich get (insanely) richer and the poor take it in the shorts. How many more billionaires do you think this latest wave of 'welfare for the wealthy' create? Will the number of billionaires double or will we see the planet's first 'trillionaires'? [I think auto-correct just provided the answer...trillionaire isn't even in the dictionary (yet.)]

Zimbabwe had trillionaires but it also had billion dollar watercress sandwiches...proving once again that ALL money is FUNNY! [Yes, I'm looking at YOU oh 'encrypted' one! Even encrypted shit is still shit!]

WTF? Stupid is as stupid does but you didn't need to be reminded of that, did you?

The world's food chain is already set to snap, farmers can't make a living without HEAVY government subsidies [due to capitalist control of the markets] Yeah, the economy is gonna go 'boom' alright but not in the way anyone is going to like. [Gotta add a 'Ka' in front that 'Boom!']

'Snap goes the Trap!' is something pinheaded Republicans will be chanting at their next rally, they won't know what it means but that's fine because they still believe tax cuts 'pay for themselves'...

That's because of all of those 'faulty assumptions' they have been fed by people that can't even spell 'economy' much less understand one.

[Yeah, we just passed the point where 'conventional thinking' gets left in the dust.]

Do you think we can fix this? [Then you are truly some kind of STUPID!]

For YEARS to come those that survive the coming debacle will ask [rhetorically] WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

Republicans will be slaughtered in the midterms...but there aren't going to BE any midterms! Elections will be suspended due to the 'State of national (Republican) emergency.

After they announce elections have been suspended for their public safety concerns, the lynchings will start, with the Palace Guard Police murdering subduing with extreme prejudice anyone caught participating in such an event.

Naturally this will cause many 'fires of suspicious origin' to erupt in otherwise 'safe' neighborhoods...and the collateral damage will start to spread.

NOBODY will go to work because the roads will be unpassable [due to random snipers and the drones sent to hunt those snipers...the proverbial swatting mosquitoes with a bazooka...but the Department of Public Safety isn't concerned about 'civilian deaths', it's all about killing the rebels at ANY price! [be it human or infrastructure.] It is, from a propaganda point of view, just as 'important' to demoralize the undecided from supporting the rebels. Especially when the rebels will be compelled to execute/exile the feckless if they are victorious. [You can't 'reason' with the feckless/rabid, the only option is to put them down!]

And so the 'comply or die' defense will accelerate (including 'false flag' operations carried out against suspected rebel sympathizers.)

Remember those camps FEMA/Homeland built about a decade ago? They won't be empty much longer.

Known rebels will be 'interned' as a matter of 'public safety'. [Meaning some of you MIGHT get to meet me in the flesh!]

[Houston, we are now officially off the reservation, do you copy that Mission control?]

These events will occur across the nation in the space of about a week. The National Guard will be called up on day two about the same time a national curfew will be declared...and the US military will find itself woefully understaffed. Not outgunned just outflanked, big time.

Ironically, the most ferocious rebels will be the ones most responsible for this C.F.! The same people Hillary branded as 'deplorables'. Both tragically and unsurprisingly they will also suffer the heaviest losses...[it's that 'leading with your chin thing'. That combined with too many John Wayne movies and you've got a real 'recipe for disaster' on your hands.]

Only the cognizant will appreciate what the end of the 'global race to the bottom' means to the world in general. Morning in America is over, good citizen, it's High Noon and it's time to settle this once and for all.

Either we return to the dark ages [and we're already half-way there! The conservo-whackos haven't been idle these past forty years!] or we reject their 'my way or the highway' dictates and FIGHT FOR YOUR CHILDREN'S FREEDOM!

Either we return to government from the barrel of a gun/tip of a spear or we take the next step and stop the 'predation' [free market slavery is no better than the original variety. Thinking you're free isn't freedom. Either we remove the process beyond the reach of the self-serving or we keep committing our children to a life of perpetual poverty so only a few can prosper.

Your choice...BUT your lack of action has brought about the inevitable, now it's time to pay the piper for forty years of (economic) carnage.

Whether you want it or not, the die is cast! {and for the last time we aren't talking 'dice' here!]

Thanks for reading, I promise to keep writing until the end [which is likely closer than any of us imagines.]

Gegner

Conspiracy

Greetings good citizen, I keep pointing to the elephants in the room and the feckless media keeps ignoring them. The most pressing elephant happens to be OVERPOPULATION and just because it isn't in the headlines it doesn't mean They aren't getting ready to do something about it...

A few posts ago, a couple of paragraphs down [around where most posts go screaming 'off the reservation'] I pointed to how the feckless would escape the fate they are forging for themselves. They would BOTH nuke us AND unleash biological weapons they have already immunized themselves against on the angry masses.

Scientists went against all logic and 'rescued' the smallpox virus, they are now going to go the next step and weaponize diseases leaving the rest of us to wonder WTF is WRONG with these people?

There is no 'good reason' to permit this.

Oh, by the way...for those of you too 'single factor' to recognize this, they have just declared war [on the 'surplus population' that Dicken's made famous in his classic, Scrooge.]

But that's just 'crazy talk!' [like yesterday's topic of cynicism, is it still cynical if it's true?]

Nukes are bad enough but weaponizing diseases [that have the potential to wipe out humanity] is psycho.

[Although it was likely here that you first read the 'opinion' that we are the abandoned 'mental defectives' of some branch of humanity attempting to rid itself of its morons!] We all tested positive for the 'stupid' marker. [Truth be told it is optimistic in the extreme to even speculate that ANY branch of humanity would be capable of advancing enough to find the marker that prevents rational thought and then actually executing a plan to rid themselves of those so tainted.]

What we are dealing with here is the far more likely outcome of our collective 'single-factor-ness'.

Demonstrating the typical failure to think things through, the feckless will liberate themselves from the surplus population only to find they are incapable of doing their own 'heavy lifting' [and the 'immune' will perish.]

Actually the real 'problem' with playing god is the likelihood that the virus will mutate after it has been weaponized, making the vaccine useless.

But if we are too stupid to prevent the feckless from 'playing' with forces they are too feeble to comprehend, perhaps it is no more than we deserve.

Stephen King's The Stand is based on the 'accidental escape' of weaponized flu virus...in case anyone needs a preview of 'coming attractions'.

Governments are established to PROTECT THE PUBLIC! So WTF is this BS?

After the nukes there won't be a news network [or a healthcare network] to combat the weaponized diseases that they only THINK they immunized themselves against.

Society, we're doing it WRONG [and most would agree it's a little too late in the game to be having that epiphany...]

Um, if you can point to the play it is no longer a 'conspiracy'. This isn't a question of who or cui bono? Everybody knows the feckless are but a half a step ahead of the hangman.

They won't hang if the get us first.

The question here is will those that remain be able to found a new society given their treacherous values?

Not a society I'd want any part of.

Um, lets just say some days the 'gift of knowledge' is more uplifting than others...

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Corrupt

Greetings good citizen, this is one of those news stories that won't go away Political corruption is pauperizing society

Raw bribery probably isn’t the issue, although insider trading based on close relationships with companies affected by legislation may be a much bigger deal than most realize. But the revolving door is an even bigger deal. When members of Congress leave their positions, voluntarily or not, their next jobs often involve lobbying of some kind. This gives them an incentive to keep the big-money guys happy, never mind what voters think.

One perverse effect of this incentive is that recent G.O.P. electoral losses may have strengthened the party’s determination to do unpopular things. Suppose you represent a mildly Republican-leaning district in, say, California or New York. Given what looks like a building Democratic wave, your odds of keeping that seat next year look low whatever you do — so it’s time to focus on pleasing your future employers on K Street.

And when it comes to the Senate, bear in mind that many senators are personally wealthy, meaning that they might be swayed by policies that enhance their personal fortunes. Which brings us to the “Corker kickback.”

All so a few can be rich.

Can't even bring myself to type WTF because this is perfectly normal...it's the 'real reason' people get into politics, so they are the ones getting paid off to sell the rest down the river.

Cynical? It's not cynicism if it's true!

How do we restore justice? It's not cynicism if you answer 'the old fashioned way' [lynching] albeit, look at what happened AFTER the Wild West was tamed...corruption EVERYWHERE!

Revolts have also yet to slay the beast of 'executive overreach'.

Only a complete overhaul of the monetary system will halt the 'What's in it for me?' crowd.

What good is government if it results in the same old payola scheme? [Vonnegut described the circle of money into power than back into money again as 'idiot's delight'...it also serves as a damning indictment of the current laws governing money and it's uses.

Yessiree Bob! We don't have us a money problem, we have us a whopper of a legal problem!

But you knew that!

Then the legal system needs to be placed 'beyond the reach' of the self-interested. [Direct democracy where the public votes directly on the laws and it is mandated that leadership [earned, not elected] NOT propose new legislation unless it is in the best interests of the public.

Only the trustworthy will achieve leadership. Your 'reputation' will precede you. The 'system' itself under A Simple Plan will weed out the cheats and liars.

Everybody has a chance but only the wise will succeed.

Most of you will be content if you achieve middle manager, locking in a sweet paygrade for the duration of your working career.

[Which is to point out that the 'ladder of success' will be much different once the 'F-you, pay me!' scheme is discarded.]

Once corruption is 'entrenched' there is but one way to root it out and that is by bloody upheaval...OR by legislation that makes corruption impossible. [The YOUR MONEY IS FOR YOU scheme eliminates corruption via financial coercion. It also acts to prevent huge sums sitting in bank accounts, waiting to be converted into power, then back into money!] Admittedly, you can still be blackmailed...but now the stakes are 'personal' and the blackmailer still plays a dangerous game because blackmail remains a capital crime!

Since ALL funds in the future will be 'virtual', the 'sudden appearance' of huge sums will set of alarm bells system-wide resulting in the uh-oh squad landing on the perp with both feet.

Being suspected of having tried to 'hack' the financial system is suicidal, you'll never be promoted, you may as well volunteer to be exiled. But if that don't stop you, well good luck trying to trick your way to the 'good life'. [Suppose you do manage to cheat the fail safes and pay yourself a 'kings ransom'...if your lifestyle doesn't match your income, you're as good as dead. [Especially in a land where NOBODY is 'born to it'.]

Inheritance is a thing of the past...your money dies with you.

So your 'dreams' of becoming a 'playboy millionaire' will come to naught for in that direction lies exile.

Same deal for gold-diggers! [No such thing as 'baby factories' and if your spouse dies before your progeny are grown you are already being 'compensated' [society raises children, which is why it gets to DICTATE how many are permissible!] If you really want 9 kids, become a teacher!

WTF?

People are weird and nobody is surprised over how screwed up things are but indulging people's irrational desires isn't the road to survival...and if we're talking 'big picture' here people, the 'greater good' has to win.

The current [purposefully cultivated] Hooray for me and F-you! mentality leads to extinction.

But, ironically, few of you care. You want what you want.

[Is that a hold over from the 'damn the torpedoes' mentality...more commonly known these days as the 'hold my beer and watch this!' mindset!]

Your 'inner hero' DOES NOT have your/humanities 'best interests' in mind...in fact your inner hero don't have ANYTHING goin' on up top!

Mindlessness is it's own reward.

Once again I bid you farewell leaving you far richer than when you arrived! [Because now you 'know shit'!]

Gegner

Tolerance

Greetings good citizen, today's topic is one few of us even contemplate never mind remember to be thankful for. Strife appears to be our lot in life and if it's not one thing it's another! You'd never know by reading me that I am basically a 'stoic' individual, a que sera, sera type that doesn't sweat the small stuff but that's the hell of it, isn't it?

Some of you consider me to be a pants/hair on fire kind of guy that's always pointing to the deplorable manner in which we deal with one another. [My, er, 'singling out' certain issues doesn't make them any less important.]

Nor, in a majority of the cases, does 'everybody do it'. Certain 'classes' of people behave in particular ways which is definitely not an excuse for reprehensible behavior.

We ALL [yes even me] do the 'blind eye' thing but how many battles can you fight at once? [We all know somebody that is 'incapable' of drawing a line, EVERYTHING is an affront (or followed by a 'what do you mean by that?')]

Perfection is a journey, not a destination...which is why the feckless get to 'good enough for me' and put a fork in it, they're done. Absolutely no need to improve beyond this.

And we circle the square and return to reprehensible behavior. [If you have a problem with them then YOU have a problem, they don't 'see the need' to change!]

Because we can't kick them out of the 'club' known as society...yet.

If we all had our own planets would anybody bother to visit us? [How many would risk the flaming 'no trespassing' sign?] People may drive you crazy but a lack of human interaction is the 'express route' to the cracker factory. PEOPLE NEED PEOPLE so why isn't 'tolerance' the norm?

Does it start with 'rugged individualism' and the whole 'self-made' mindset or does this self delusion begin with the 'I don't like (and won't put up with) fill-in-the-blank?

And for some that list is ponderously long...mostly because the penalty for noncompliance doesn't exist.

Juxtapose this with the comply or die crowd, the exact opposite of the rugged individual and you are stonewalled.

People don't mind rules (so long as THEY make them!) thus does 'tolerance' elude us.

Under ASP there is a brief list of requirements beyond which you are provided with a generous amount of freedom. Principle among the requirements is the prohibition against inflicting your will upon others. Tolerance is relative to how 'picayune' YOU want to be...

If you find fault with your own proposals you've made it beyond impossible to deal with you.

Tolerance is the bedrock of friendship and friendship is what communities are made of.

If you care about your relationships with others you might want to ask those who seek out your company what they enjoy about you. If they have a hard time answering it might be time for some self assessment on what kind of friend YOU'VE been.

Other troubling tell tales run along the lines of either you pay or you drive. Few will tell you what a great listener you are and if they do perhaps it's time you started paying attention to what they are telling you...[especially if the 'great listener' award surprises you, there is no honor in being 'great at tuning others out'...despite there being SOME in withholding your judgement although if you're not paying attention in the first place...]

What a pathetic species, it's not what we enjoy about others but what we will put up with that makes people 'worthwhile'...because when we're not 'tolerating' their idiosyncrasies what we really enjoy is their 'personalities', it's what makes them 'dear' to us.

So...when we aren't in 'a killing rage' [and don't fool yourself into thinking some are 'cool as ice' most of the time, they are just better at hiding it than others] we seek out the company of those whose company we enjoy [even when those people aren't always 'delighted' to see us.]

There is another truth about humans, not only do we think of something that makes us laugh several times a day but we are also prone to bouts of rage just about as many as those that make us grin, often mindlessly.

Life is rough but we soldier on...and maybe it's this combative stance that makes us so warlike...although I stick to my assertion that 'hatred is a 'learned thing'. We don't 'hate' naturally despite being 'hot house plants' when it comes to what 'annoys' us.

Most people have a novel's worth [50,000+] of dislikes they carry around with them. You fortunately don't let it bother you [most of the time] but it does contribute to the incidents of hidden rage you regularly experience.

War/conflict holds your interest but this one will make most of your eyes glaze over, human nature drives you nuts, and reading about it only slightly less.

But there it is. Gegner is a 'student of humanity' [again a journey, not a destination and every day holds a new lesson.]

Festivus will be upon us soon, prepare!

Thanks for stopping by and opening your mind. You depart richer than when you arrived!

Gegner

Battlefront

Greetings good citizen, the war of ideas is being won by the ignorant and embraced (at least momentarily) by the terminally thoughtless.

This 'division' the media keeps pointing to and NOBODY is working to correct keeps getting worse with each bit of 'propaganda' the president's 'propaganda chief' [for those of you not paying attention, that is Bannon's OFFICIAL job title!] creates.

How many of you believe propagandists [people that are trained in 'selling' a particular point of view] have no place in the public square?

There was and has been a long standing 'tradition' of employing 'strategists' solely to 'buff the image' of capitalism and the way of life it produces [for the fortunate few.]

Be ye ignorant, thoughtless or both, humanity's inability to deal with being 'played' [for a fool] is at the heart of our playground fight over the 'nature of reality'.

We live in a place where NOTHING is 'as presented'.

We could rationalize this as the cost of living in a race of 'lying opportunists' but nobody is willing to admit they aren't being straight-forward because their reputation is already fragile enough.

Only under the most dire of circumstances can you get people to tell it like it is. [and even then the tale is less than 75% reliable.]

When 'making the sale' spells the difference between eating and going without, the truth be damned.

Did I mention we're doing this wrong? I think it might have come up once or twice...

Most of us treat honesty like 'perfection', it's a 'goal' not a destination. If you fall a bit short, you're running about average.

But how much is 'a bit short' varies considerably depending on the topic.

The average citizen doesn't understand the 'war on facts' being waged by the lying liars who are paid to lie on the behalf of the wealthiest among us. After FOUR DECADES of tax cuts [resulting in a national school system that ranks 27th worldwide] they want us to believe that THIS TIME the trillion dollar hole they plan on blowing in the budget will, for the first time since it was proposed by St. Ronnie [his tax cuts were abject failures too!] will produce widespread prosperity!

Nobody but our bought and paid for politicians believes this but, hey. The only way to stop them from robbing the treasury is to start stringing them up by the light poles! [Supreme Court first.]

Followed by the directors of the FBI and the CIA and the head of every lobbying firm and 'think tank' across the nation.

I suppose after the first dozen or so we could give 'em a choice between hanging and exile, with exile location number one being 'decidedly inhospitable' because of the lack of 'prep time'.

Yeah, we're all sitting here, watching the Republicans pass tax legislation that is so unpopular nobody wants it [because it has NEVER worked in the past.] but there isn't anything we can do to stop them...because the people who 'own' the government have placed their lapdogs beyond our reach.

Our 'trouble' with government has always been government's control of money. Once seized, the government danced to the tune of those holding the purse strings!

THus do we get tax breaks but only for those who truly don't need them.

The question on everyone's mind is, 'Why do they think we will let them live here, are they that stupid?'

Naturally the answer is, they won't and they aren't. They will take their billions and spend them somewhere else.

The tax cuts have NEVER BEEN 'for you', they are being done TO you. Even when St. Ronnie cut taxes years ago the cost of living sucked up what the average worker got and then some.

Only morons think otherwise...but we had that covered with 'ignorant and thoughtless' which pretty much sums up the morons, doesn't it?

The real 'shorthand' at play here is every time government trims taxes it is a signal to commerce to raise prices.

Every tax cut we've gotten since 'Morning in America' has been devoured by 'inflation'.

I guess I'm just flapping my fingers here, brings us back to our original question of which do you suppose we'll run out of first, light poles or rope? [no shortage of people who need their necks stretched!]

Thanks for letting me inside your head. You need to remember nothing will get better until you get up and do something about it!

Too bad lynching produces near immediate results but it's 'unsanctioned' nature makes it murder rather than what it really is, 'justifiable homicide'.

Letting the criminals dictate what's permissible has produced this mess. Time to take justice back!

Gegner

Agenda

Greetings good citizen, the people of the nation are being herded down the chute to their inevitable slaughter by some VERY well financed people. Only hardened political news junkies had ever heard of Brietbart before Steve Bannon appeared like a sucker fish attached to THE DONALD, pushing him into the political arena that most are still unsure if he had any real intentions of running and now look at him, talk about your 'fish out of water!'.

Make no mistake about it, the people who put Trump [and Barry and W. and Willie Jeff AND St Ronnie] in the White House are the same people behind the assassination of JFK and the 'abdication' of LBJ.

'Morning in America' goes all the way back to the civil rights movement and FDR.

But that's beside the point, after failing to 'capitalize' on crashing the global economy the first time they decided to do it again 80 years later and we can only wonder HOW they were able to do that.

They were able to do it for the same reason NOBODY was prosecuted either time they trashed the global economy...they are running things.

But I digress, the non-single factor already knows this, what they don't know is what to do about it...because it is quickly becoming apparent that NOBODY is rushing in to rescue us from the evil people intent on driving the rest of us OFF OF THEIR PLANET!

Yes good citizen, the feckless have had enough of the rabble 'questioning' their god given authority! [Left unchecked, these people have started believing their own LIES!

Um, Steve Bannon dresses like he's homeless but his employers are paying him lavishly to stand in Karl Roves shoes. It begs the question of how did this 'hobo' end up rubbing elbows with a guy that won't let you in his house unless you slip on protective booties?

It is evident by looking at him that 'reason and logic' don't mean anything to him, he's a man with a job to do and he's gonna get it done!
Criminals one and all but criminals that have seized the highest ground of all, they run the government and with that they get to 'pack' the justice system with their criminal cronies.

What kind of criminals are we talking about? Well, not only did they [during Willie Jeff's term] REPEAL THE NEW DEAL, but during W's 'reign' they repealed the f'n MAGNA CARTA!

Yes good citizen, jurisprudence has been dialed back over a THOUSAND YEARS with the wave of a pen.

Yet here YOU are, sitting on your thumbs. [If you have to ask what your thumbs are doing up your backside, help yourself to a 'I'm stupid' sign on your way out...]

They are going to make their play and all of the signs say they are going to do it SOON. Will it be disease or will they use the stockpile of nukes they had us build for them?

Probably both...and once it starts nobody will be checking the targeting computers to see who bombed who...because in the end there are only two players, the rich and their victims.

Unsurprisingly, no matter how many times you are told 'you're gullible' it bounces off, you refuse to believe it.

Well wake up and smell the napalm! They ARE coming for you and if you sit there waiting for someone else to 'save' you, you're gonna die!

The worse news is there's no place to run, no place to hide.

Fight or die where you [likely] sit.

Just listening to what this lizard brained knuckle dragger has to say and how he says it should be enough to convince you that he doesn't have anyone's back but the people who are paying him to do this...[what does it say when the guy is intent on taking out the moderates in his own organization? If you aren't positively rabid you aren't 'loyal' to his cause...and what 'cause' do you suppose that is?

These are the same people seeking to blow a trillion and half dollar hole in the Federal Budget so who do you think he's working for, god?

They are going to 'start over' and if they let you live it will be to clean their toilets and take out the trash.

They are 'too good' for menial tasks like that.

This is genocide but the feckless will call it 'survival of the fittest' when they are the furthest thing from it!

You can beat these clowns but you have to get your thumbs out of your backside and ACT!

How much more do you need to see?

Look at your grandchildren and ask yourself if you are doing right by them.

It's a two-edged sword and as always, the 'choice' is YOURS!

How ironic to be in the position of having to plead for the future of humanity while pointing out you perpetual gullibility?

In the end it is you who needs to decide who is selling you a bill of goods.

The only thing I get out of this is life, I have nothing to gain. [In the very best case scenario, I will be appointed 'arbiter of the change', the overseer of the implementation of A Simple Plan. All I get out of that is the same world your children will thrive in. It's not for ME, it's for US!]

Thanks for stopping by opening your mind,

Gegner

Education

Greetings good citizen, perhaps the least understood word in our vocabulary is Education. ON THE SURFACE it is generally understood to mean 'the pursuit of useful information' but can that purpose be achieved when certain topics remain 'taboo'? [E:g MONEY!]

For education to be complete it must first be HOLISTIC! The body of knowledge the students are presented with has to 'stand alone'(be logical by itself) [and not just because the almighty 'I' said so. There is a reason your 'religious education' is called 'training' because it is dogma based and NOT 'factual'.]

After 'Morning in America' civics, the history and rules of civilization was removed from high school curriculum across the nation, if not the world. A whole generation has come to maturity [if you could call it that] with zero formal education regarding why civilization exists.

Parents [most of who never knew they'd ceased educating the young in the 'history of society'] tuned out during their civics class so they just shrugged when they learned their kids were being taught plain old history instead.

While the young are taught history, 'history without of context' is meaningless. The (modern) Tea Party has no idea what the real issue was way back when.

Our 'usurpers' used this lack of knowledge to herd the addled into thinking they were protesting taxation...which was only HALF of the problem, the whole issue was 'taxation without representation'!

Now the Tea-tards, being Republicans, seem unable to grasp the concept that their politicians actually DON'T represent THEM [their 'constituency' is the One Percent.] But mindlessly seizing upon a single incident from the American Revolution to protest [in this case mandated healthcare] was beyond moronic and speaks volumes about the current 'state of (un)education'

But it's more than that. Much of what was taught in civics class was formulated during the now discarded 'cold war' and taught the values the scared spitless capitalists preached to teach that capitalism was superior to communism.

None of those values are taught today and you still can't find a communist anywhere on the planet NOT due to the success of 'capitalist morality' [morality is and always has been 'god's department'] which is why the bible thumping Republicans are about as base as they come because they aren't god! [bizarrely they believe if god wanted them to be moral, he make 'em moral. It's not 'temptation' when an attractive female enters 'the forbidden zone', it's an invitation! God wouldn't have put 'er there if he didn't want anything to happen!]

This is the kind of 'mis-education' people in general often receive, not in school but at grandpa's knee.

Another nod to the '#Me Too' phenomenon...

Part of the problem is that of 'too many cooks' and the lessons taught in school are 'overridden' by the 'my way or the highway' crowd.

Criminality does not exist in a vacuum.

Seems the need for cooperation is perpetually in direct conflict with the desire for 'individuality'.

Thus Exile.

People don't really want to 'live as they please' because that's what exile is all about. Life with no rules [except nature's] You can ignore the conventions that make civilization hospitable but you can't even negotiate terms with Mother Nature...and, bizarrely, this is where 'comply or die' mindset comes from.

Some mouth breathers have decided THEY are 'forces to be reckoned with' [and the hardcore of these usually go down in a hail of bullets.]

Yeah, no 'dancing between the cracks' for these 'rugged individuals', it's My way or the highway! [provided society doesn't catch up to them first.] Problem is society doesn't have anybody enforcing the rules most of us are ignorant of in the first place!

All because our education is woefully 'incomplete'.

NOW I hope you can see the need for 'education' to be both holistic and unified. [For society to function properly, EVERYBODY needs to be on the same page. Exempting yourself from the rules the rest of us agree to live by must result in the revocation of your membership in society.

Since criminals run our current, er, 'organization' they turn a blind eye to the predatory behavior of the 'independent and proud'.

This fracture has led to a degradation of the conventions that prevent us from killing one another on sight.

What are those conventions? School doesn't teach them because they got pawned off on the Church and since God is so fragmented and church has become more concerned with being 'inoffensive' [it's about the money! 'friendly' churches make a lot of it!] and we return to our Elephant in the room, the 'rudderless' society.

Yeah, the military-industrial complex and it's 'Morning in America' campaign dealt society a fatal blow.

If there is to be a society to save in the future we must return to [holistic and universal] education [and keep the curriculum beyond the reach of the self-interested.]

The reason civics was removed from our children's education is it gave the feckless an empty palate where they could dictate outcomes!

Ignorance can be a powerful tool if you know how to USE IT!

and believe me good citizen, they're using it!

You are being played and it's all due to the gaping holes in YOUR EDUCATION!

Harmony can only exist when everybody is on the same page...

Don't let them drag you down [they've already helped themselves to your future and your children's...and nobody has lifted a finger to stop them!]

{It could be fixed so easily you'll gape in amazement and marvel over why it took them so long!}

We aren't dead (yet.) While there's still time you need to act!

Thank you for letting me inside YOUR head!

Gegner

P.S. Thank you for the encouragement, keep those + 1's coming!

Fashion?

Greetings good citizen, most of you could care less about ten minutes from now, never mind what your kids will be facing 20 years from now...although if you think about it don't you wish somebody had been paying attention to what was going on twenty years ago to head off the CF we are currently mired in?

In regards to today's title, I found this (apparently encore) article in today's FASHION section of the NY Times. For those of you disinclined to click through it is but another piece that points to a future that needs a lot fewer humans than we already have on hand.

Does anyone know what this is a 'recipe' for?

Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

Honestly good citizen, how do you feel about chasing your next meal down with a stick? How many of those hunts would you exhaust yourself with before you decide Fluffy has been asking for it for quite a while now? If it's not YOUR pet and it's edible. Hunger is a formidable foe.

If you hail from my former specialty, manufacturing chance are excellent you've already been made redundant several times mostly due to A LACK OF CUSTOMERS for the products you used to produce [robots don't buy what they make!]

Let the moron who bought the robots eat them!

Economics 101 Children. NOBODY can live in an 'economic desert', once specialized humans rely on their specialty remaining relevant!

'Starting over' at the proverbial 'bottom' is a non-starter for most and widely met with 'tough titty, if you don't like it, starve!' by the systems benefactors.

That aside, we have a whole generation that has NEVER gotten it's feet under it, they don't have anything to lose because they were born into a world that had no 'use' for them.

Did I mention that capitalism is a hot house plant that only (barely) survives under ideal circumstances?

If not for 'government largess' [hand-out programs] capitalism would have devolved back into the murderous tyranny it supplanted. Yes good citizen, people cling to capitalism because it IS 'better than the alternative', tyrants that would have you preform unspeakable acts for just the chance of being rewarded.

Yeah, the 'old ways' [like the god fearing Dark Ages] were worse...but not a LOT worse. Getting stiff-armed and calling it 'progress' is ironic indeed because it is neither!

What's behind the Epic Fail we call 'economics'? Commerce has become driven by MONEY rather than it's 'true' driver, NEED! Money is (and always has been 'incidental'.) For all of the self-important A-holes who shriek about 'losing money', they have lost sight of the fact that money is meaningless.

Being 'money centered' is a MENTAL DISORDER!

[Anyone who finds that humorous has even bigger problems upstairs...]

Like our 'mass murder' problem that guns created, AI is on a track to eclipse [and possibly supplant] our gun affliction.

We are already living with the effects of 'unmitigated automation'. We have an economy that is choking on excess capacity as planners find themselves in uncharted waters due to the incredible shrinking 'customer pool'.

How many times do we have to repeat it? YOUR ROBOTS DO NOT BUY WHAT THEY MAKE, NEITHER DO THE UNEMPLOYED!

How pathetic is it good citizen we live in a world run by MORONS who are FIXATED on MONEY?

Happy Holidays folks! [Would that it were confined to just Christians!]

Gegner

Victory!

Greetings good citizen, the mood across 'progressive Murika' is one of jubilation, the party popularly known as 'Democrats' chalked up a win in a die hard Red State.

It is being touted as a victory for the much maligned and deeply flawed system referred to as Democracy...but is it?

You still only get to choose between candidates you don't know and they run not on their own policies but those of a 'party' you have zero influence over. Am I being harsh pointing out that in any other situation those circumstances would be viewed as an 'epic fail'?

Not your fault good citizen, the parties have been operating like this from the start. Zero irony that the chief difference between them centers on taxation. Democrats are criticized for 'tax and spend' while their alleged ideological opponents 'mandate and don't fund'

Both are unnecessary but that speaks to the criminal situation we have and isn't 'party' related [save the parties acting as a smoke screen for the regular looting of the public treasury via the War Machine...]

Whenever your doubts were aroused you were reminded that your politicians were doing 'god's work' [by keeping us safe, bringing home the bacon via those defense contracts to provide the troops with shiny new turnip twaddlers (even if nobody knows what they're for or how they work...)]

Sort of like the politicians themselves.

So, still feeling 'victorious'?

Probably not a good time to point out that we could convert from the current BS system to A Simple Plan and not skip a stroke, would it?

Oh, there would be 'disruptions' [mostly due to confusion over 'who's paying us and where/when do we get our money?] but once the kinks are smoothed out things should start operating more smoothly than anyone ever imagined possible! People like 'simple' and under ASP everyone has a simple job to do and knows how to do it so everything runs 'smooth'.

Oh, the 'contrary' will still [temporarily] be with us but they will either get with the program or be invited to leave. [Which is to opine that those who thrive on chaos would finally meet their match. If EVERYBODY can make ten an hour doing it the planned way and you can only make two doing it YOUR way, guess what, 'YOUR WAY' isn't 'better' no matter how much you insist! [And if you persist in insisting your membership in society will be revoked!]

We all KNOW of countless examples where things are done a particular way to 'appease' the pig-headed. Those days are gone!

I'd think that alone would be enough to get you to hop on the bandwagon but that's the power of the 'Devil you know'. You may not like Ol' Scratch much but at least you know how to deal with [him/her/it.] This new thing got teeth where they can't be and barks from the other end...how can that be possible? Sort of gives you an idea how long you've been 'doing it wrong'.

Here's another point you've considered but dismissed because nobody does anything about it. Often times you do things the 'hard way' solely to dissuade you from questioning procedure! It is to re-enforce the message 'our way is the ONLY way!' [Not that EVERYTHING is screwed up, it may be quicker to just slap it together but if you don't have it securely attached the failure rate will reach 100%]

This is often flawed or old design that the 'profit driven' don't see the need to alter, just one more example of the pain caused by money!

This is why the patent office will be shuttered, ideas are NOT 'property!'

But the boneheaded believe otherwise and we ALL suffer for it.

I could write a book on the 'gullibility' of mankind but man is, er, 'allergic' to criticism and chooses to 'disbelieve', making the whole exercise futile.

Let us return to the platitude "A better world starts with YOU!" [but we both know 'voting' for change and actually achieving it are two separate things.]

The feckless have their 'tax cuts', the child molester's loss in Alabama is of no consequence to the 'self-absorbed'.

If they need to do more damage to the public weal they will just pull the strings on their 'pretend' opponents, paying or punishing them according to what they agreed to in their contract for campaign financing!

I'd think twice before you break into your 'happy dance'

Victory is still a long way off.

Thanks for opening your mind,

Gegner

Honesty

Greetings good citizen, of all the virtues honesty is valued the highest but employed the least.

Today's headlines continue to denounce the Republican tax cuts as a giveaway to those who need it least when the true objective of 'defunding the government' is to put society itself on the ropes.

It is a reckoning that will have sweeping social repercussions...considering ALL MONEY IS FUNNY.

You do what you do because it needs doing, although not everything 'needs doing' Insurance is the biggest waste there is!

From permitting contractors to build in flood zones [because the public will pick up the tab to rebuild] to preventing new treatments for the ful spectrum of ailments [because they are in bed with the lobby for the current useless treatment.]

Yeah, money is a 'tool' and it is so badly misused [especially by those 'trusted' to handle it] we face social implosion over the feckless's short term goals.

If we were being 'honest' about the tax cuts, the Republican's are doing this so 'their (tax) money' isn't used to support 'surplus humanity'.

We ALL KNOW the latest tax legislation is a 'giveaway to the already wealthy, those who have more than they know what to do with, literally can't spend it but they don't want to 'fund' the general welfare...and THEY'RE RIGHT!

Taxes should be ZERO, so should the 'defense budget'. The trillion dollar war machine so vital to the nations wealthiest fortunes has to be shut down.

Banking must become a internal function of the 12 specialties, housing must become a gimme ['free' for those who don't know how to interpret the word gimme.] Transportation is also 'free' on an 'as needed' basis, fuel will cost you and no, you don't get to pick. Transportation is to get you from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. It has nothing to do with your testosterone level.

I'm being honest about the whack jobs running things that 'market' products to your emotions rather than your needs.

When we run out of fossil fuel they will be the ones who shrug and exclaim 'who knew?'

THEY KNEW!

Then there's the medical thing...but wait, I'm skipping the most important part of the whole 'reshuffle', the zeroing of all bank accounts and the advent of virtual money you can only get via employment.

There is NOTHING ironic that those with the most having never worked a day in their lives [although the original theft took a considerable amount of effort and plotting.] Maintaining the conduits that keep the trough full is also a ceaseless task but one they 'delegate' to minions who are only marginally better off then the rabble without Ivy League degrees...

What is the most important lesson learned for 4 years of college? That 'gold rules' and those with the gold make the rules DESPITE ALL MONEY (INCLUDING GOLD) BEING FAKE!

Standing right behind the 'Golden Rulers' are the 'absolute rulers' who keep the stalemate alive, those are the 'guns rule' crowd. It's 'safer' to buy people than it is to force them to do it but better to cover both bases or you'll invite revolt.

Which, while we're being HONEST, does anyone else find it disturbing that our culture is practically based on the idea that we are living on the edge of revolt? [That one COULD break out at any minute and nobody would be surprised?]

Haven't noticed that? You're not paying attention. [Probably too worried about which restroom the trans-gendered are going do themselves in?]

I'm looking out my window at the circle shoveled around the fire hydrant and thinking even with that head start it would take the Fire Dept five minutes after they arrived to hook up to it before they could squirt a single drop of water on the blaze but they could have a swat team in my driveway in under two minutes.

Sure hope when the terrorists attack they don't decide to burn my house down! [Cuz that's where the Christmas tree is!]

But I digress...somewhat. [Yes, that's a reference to yesterday's bonehead that didn't even succeed in killing HIMSELF with his IED!]

In a 'related' [from today's NYT] story here's an idea, now that housing is a gimme and we have tens of millions of working aged unemployed, why not put the 'army of the unemployed' to work building firebreaks in the land that burns and shakes?

Yeah, we will be better served using earth movers to dig fire breaks and putting the rest to work 'rehabbing' the slums built by the feckless but 'unfettered' managers will figure out what needs doing, when.

Sanity has such a nice ring to it, doesn't it? No political wrangling, just get 'er done! [Along with the insane mismanagement of society the politics of division will also go the way of the Dodo.] [Remember, the 'ineffectiveness' of the political process serves as cover for the rip off perpetrated by the criminals actually 'funding' [with IMAGINARY MONEY] 'society'. Welcome to Thieves World!

Anyone disagree? I once again invite you to comment but the emptiness of the comments section may make your words echo endlessly!

[Almost 3 years worth of 'dead space'!]

Most of us subscribe to the credo of 'if you haven't got anything nice to say then say nothing at all' despite it bumping head on into the other truism of 'All evil needs to succeed is for the honest to do (which includes 'say') nothing!'

So I'll close with the most timeworn of all of 'em, what are ya gonna do, fish or cut bait?

Thanks for letting me inside YOUR head,

Gegner

Happy Holidays!

Greetings good citizen, the 'War on Christmas' [another innovation brought to you by the 'Morning in America' crowd] How many of you remember Karl Rove [talk about 'disappeared'!] and the other players that went by the moniker 'History's Actors'?

Which is to point out that it's NOT over. You are still having your buttons JAMMED just as hard as they can so you won't be paying attention to the big screwing that's already a fiat accompli!

It's too late to derail the bad tax plan. The cuts to vital social services that will result as the badly broken and mismanaged 'system' struggles to cope with too many members and not enough contributors.

What system are we talking about here, good citizen? The 'move the wealth to the top' system, sometimes referred to as the 'more for me' system {although nobody is actually named 'me'} making it that much more troubling. It's formal name is 'capitalism and it's supporters [the ones who rake in all the money that aren't named 'me'] challenge the rest of us to come up with a 'better' way.

A 6 year-old could do it but 'our betters' don't want a different system [unless it improves/increases 'their share' of the economic pie!]

Intuition tells us that a six year old did indeed invent Capitalism and modeled it after their favorite board game, Monopoly but that would be backwards.

I digress [a little] and I belabor the obvious.

People marvel at the 'brilliance' of feeding such a large population with only a few workers [freeing up the rest for 'other work'] The dirt in this formula is the way it denies opportunity to so many for little or no reason.

If we step backwards in history we'd discover that 'agrarian man' toiled from sun to sun during the warm months to put away food for the cold months when the land was 'unproductive'. There was still the task of keeping warm and the livestock to fed but other than that there wasn't much else to 'do' [although we all know they kept 'busy']

Which leads us to the celebrations centered on the halfway to spring mark, the winter Solstice.

I have zero truck with Spirit in the sky since it was 'created' to justify man's inhumanity to his fellow man, yes good citizen, God's 'nickname' as it were is 'God the Oppressor'.

The church spent more time 'bending you to god's will' than anything else. The most productive masons in history were those ministering to those building a 'stairway to Heaven'.

So it was this 'time of peace and good will' [mostly due to inclement weather and the 'uncertainty' of the seasons] was dedicated to our collective salvation.

Where did it come from the idea that we were born 'bad' and prone to, er, 'wickedness'?

Same people who conjured up God out of thin air also pee'd in your proverbial corn flakes with frightening regularity. All you heard from the holy man was how pathetic humankind was...while in private he would shriek with laughter over how gullible we all were! [Usually in conference with his 'co-conspirators' the royals, god's chosen.]

People knew there was 'collusion' between church and state but there wasn't anything they could do about it until the church [a haven for rogues] started preying on the subjects and the peasants demanded the king protect them.

In some cases the kings response was to make church attendance mandatory.

So those of you with Jesus in your hearts and conservatism on the brain, you had best stop and learn the lessons of HISTORY.

The original thrust of the Republican Revolution [led by Ronnie Reagan] was to return America to its perceived 'Christian roots'.

Note Trumps 'adventures in the Middle East' are aimed at bringing about the 'End Times' [and the global misery they predict!]

They can't help it if you're STUPID. It's up to YOU to prove them WRONG.

The rogue actors littering the world stage with mistrust and fear do so to keep you focused on the need to protect yourself...but you are guarded by the very people you need to be protected FROM, those who claim they are on a 'mission from God'.

After they turn the planet to glass and 'god' doesn't return, what then?

Will they say 'sorry' or oops?'...(not that it matters after the fact.)

Society is walking a tightrope (and it has never led to Heaven despite what the 'holy-rollers' tell you.)

The whole situation lends credence to the notion that this planet is basically a repository for the mentally unstable a wiser civilization rid themselves of.

Would be irony in the extreme if we were exiles, wouldn't it? [Keep looking for the mother ship, it has to be around here somewhere!]

Was our survival an accident or where 'the others' that taught us how to care for ourselves the original missionaries [building their own 'stairway to Heaven'?]

You know what the missionary quid pro quo is don't you? You adopt THEIR religion!

It's okay, they're 'saving your soul'! [How can you ever thank them enough!] Don't worry, the missionaries have it covered, they're willing to 'trade'...

But again I digress (a little.)

Um, can the holidays really be 'happy' if you're being played and you know it? [But there's nothing...(legal) you can do about it?]

Just something to ponder as we traditionally gather with those we love and celebrate the passing of another year of toil, tears and Pyrrhic victories.

Celebrate the season and revel in your HUMANITY!

[Take the bad with the good and carry on...the point is you have to know what victory looks like to actually achieve it! [Thus A.S.P., eyes on the prize people!]

Enjoy the holidays!

Gegner

Hit count

Greetings good citizen, As I have admonished repeatedly, I write these missives for me...they are my way of 'venting'. So it is unclear to me what any of the stats actually tell me about my 'audience'. I also have no clue what to make of their profound silence. It is puzzling but hardly troubling...this blog is for me [as someone recently pointed out, to 'pontificate'.]

Yet it isn't my intent to tell anyone 'what to think', My aim is to provide readers [if any] with something to think about.

None of us lives in a vacuum, what I point to others can readily see too [their explanation/interpretation likely differs but that's to be expected.]

Is expressing your opinion on the internet the first step towards being declared a 'moonbat'? [I don't care but you already knew that]

It is more than a little disturbing that none of you care enough one way or the other to even bother commenting.

If NONE of you care then 'the die' is already cast (funny how some people think of dice when they hear that expression, it actually refers to molds used for molten metal (or other materials that start off fluid then assume a more rigid shape.]

Like I said, this blog is written for my 'mental health'; it principal purpose is to provide me with the illusion I'm doing SOMETHING about problems facing society.

The planning stage is important so we arrive at the problem of 'too many cooks' that keeps your brains in check.

Either my designs are 'unassailable' or they are too ludicrous for serious discussion. [People once thought that way about freedom, that it was a stupid idea not to be owned.]

Eventually people 'evolved'.

[If your mind is rebelling against the idea of people believing freedom was 'unthinkable', let me refer you to the flat earth and how it used to be a capital crime to express the notion that the earth wasn't the center of the cosmos...and the church was to be believed in all things because heresy was a crime against god! Boggles the mind to consider how many people are ignorant to what made the Dark Ages, dark!

Even more baffling is today's report that Party Republicans in Alabama are voting for Roy Moore [which proves it's not just the brand that's off, it's the people running the party that put 'party interests' ahead of YOUR interests!

Remember, admitting you're a Republican [and less than 25% of voters self identify as Republican] is like admitting you relish sex with cadavers! [That you're an insensitive, unfeeling moron too stupid to find 'up' even with a road map!]

Disagree?

I doubt it.

Either way, it snowed last night so I must clear the driveway because it won't clear itself...

Thanks for stopping by!

Gegner